Rocky Hill Adopts School Budget, Commits To Full-Day Kindergarten

February 07, 2014|By DAVID DRURY, Special to the Courant, The Hartford Courant

ROCKY HILL – Full-day kindergarten will be offered to all incoming students this fall, under the 2014-2015 schools budget adopted by the board of education.

The four elementary teachers, two paraprofessionals and instructional supplies needed for a full-day program added nearly a half-million dollars to the budget.

Total spending will increase next year 5.7 percent, from $31.6 to $33.5 million. An additional $2.6 million was added, bringing the total to $36 million, to cover district custodial and maintenance costs. Those previously were paid out of the municipal budget. Town and school officials say the transfer will reduce municipal spending next year by a like amount.

The school budget will be forwarded to Town Manager Barbara R. Gilbert who is preparing the town budget.

Board approval Thursday night was unanimous. The members felt the instructional demands of the Common Core State Standards, effective advocacy by district educators and the overwhelming backing of elementary school parents meant time had come to offer full-day kindergarten to all students.

"There is never a perfect time to implement full-day kindergarten. This is our time to do it,'' board chairman Frank Morse said afterwards.

Jennifer Simboski Allison, who chairs the board finance committee, said "We got the right group of people together to get the wheels moving, finally.''

Allison was elected to the board in November after being a leading parental voice for full-day kindergarten. She said costs associated with the program contributed slightly more than 1 percent of the increase in the operating budget. The bulk of the increase, more than 3 ½ percent, she said, was attributable to contractual obligations and other non-discretionary costs.

District kindergarten enrollment, which now stands at 154 students, are projected to increase by 20 to 25 students, as kindergarten parents will opt to enroll children in the town schools rather than seek a full-day program in a private school, according to Superintendent Mark Zito.

Allison agreed with that assessment. She said she knows friends who enrolled their children in private schools this year for kindergarten, but plan to register them in the district for first grade. Others "are planning to send them to Rocky Hill if we do all-day kindergarten," she said.

Both West Hill and Stevens elementary schools offer one full-day kindergarten class under a pilot program begun this year. All other students attend half-day classes.

In addition to adopting the budget, the board voted to recommend $1.6 million in capital spending next year. Those projects include $45,000 to cover the initial year of a three-year lease of three portables at West Hill to accommodate full-day kindergarten, and $400,000 to install those classrooms and a fourth district-owned portable at Stevens.